The “oPen™” name was originally assigned by the development team as a project name for our interactive, handheld scanning tool. Although the name oPen is certainly a clever double-entendre, it was never intended to be the name of the commercial device. In that capacity the name has a couple of major problems.

Calling it a pen plops it into a mundane category of existing products that embody only a small amount of our functionality. These handheld scanners (e.g. C-Pen, IrisPen, DocuPen, etc.) have a reputation for producing a frustrating and limited user experience. With all of that established baggage already out there, oPen may as well be shmoPen. Who will notice? (more…)

by Jeff Bowman

Over the past two weeks I have been trying to get my arms around our brand strategy and trademarks. Several aspects of our current approach concern me. First of these is the name and word treatment of the company name: Exbiblio. What the name implies is “formerly a library of books,” or “out of the book.” This is clever enough. Exbiblio, however, is a tongue twisting four syllables so it only works as a company name; not as a product or services brand name to be featured in our communications with consumers. More troubling are the font, color palette and logo as outlined in our style guide. THEY ALL SCREAM GOTHIC . In fact, our font choice is even called Gothic. Our tagline (The Paper Renaissance) doesn’t make any connection with the digital world. Amusingly, it is even more of a disconnect when you consider that the Renaissance included the decline of Gothic architecture.

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